


Losing Space

by IndigoInsane



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Mentors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-05
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-10-28 23:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/313288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoInsane/pseuds/IndigoInsane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy gives Robin his address assuming nothing will actually happen. Instead his apartment becomes the group's home away from home much to Roy's frustration. Written in response to Kou_Tora's prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [Kou_Tora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kou_Tora/pseuds/Kou_Tora) in the [YJ_Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/YJ_Prompts) collection. 



Roy never should have told Robin where he lived, a little two bedroom apartment in the nicer side of town mainly occupied by elderly women to invested in bingo to notice his unusual schedule. When the kid had asked he had assumed that it would be filed away as an interesting fact and never brought up again. Instead Roy couldn't walk in his own front door without being bombarded with unwanted company.

In his civilian clothes Roy bound up the stairs two at a time already knowing his door would be unlocked and Robin would be sprawled on his furniture. The only hope he had was that if he hurried he could save what little junk food he allowed himself from the kid's bottomless stomach.

Bracing himself at the doorway Roy had to resist the urge to bludgeon himself when he heard hurried scuffling and warnings that he's home. "I can hear you two in there."

Silence. Roy tried not to imagine what had them so worried about him coming home. Then a sarcastic voice, "Well it's your apartment. Why don't you come in?"

Good point. Roy barged in without a second thought. Surprisingly the entryway was still intact, probably because Robin always used the window, and the kitchen on the left was as cleanish as Roy left it. The living room on the other hand…

"Why are there two of you?"

Wally smiled and waved a hand from where he was draped across the couch with Robin squished on the end. "It's ok; Superboy and Meghan are acting all lovey-dovey so Robin said we could hide out here."

Roy glared at the boy wonder who at least managed to look sheepish. "Robin said? This is my apartment! I don't care what Robin says. Get out!"

The two boys immediately started protesting. "Come on! You can't send us back there, it's gross. Don't you remember when any or your teammates dated?"

On and on it went until Roy relented, "Fine. Stay here. But get off my couch while I watch a movie."

To happy to protest being kicked onto the floor Robin and Wally sat through some action packed flick Roy didn't want to watch, ate all his food and then left sometime after midnight. Roy got ready for bed with a sense of dread deep in his stomach.

It turned out to be a good warning. Night after night Robin and Wally invaded his house with the excuse of avoiding any romance and completely ignored the fact that they weren't welcome. One night Roy even had the bright idea to point something out as Robin was ordering a pizza online. "If you're all so grossed out by Superboy and Meghan why isn't Artemis and Aqualad here?"

He had meant to find out the real reason he couldn't get any privacy but Robin chose to take it at face value. "I don't think Aqualad minds too much. Poor Artemis though, she really hates it."

And so Roy was burdened with another member of Young Justice. Artemis was just as bad as the other two, constantly rummaging through his stuff and complaining about his taste in music and movies. "Then get your own," he muttered. Soon his cabinets were jammed with cheesy kung-fu movies and what could only be described as that sound his ears make while they bleed. He drew the line at her scheming to replace the sparse furniture, invasion aside all he had ever needed was a couch, TV, shelf, basic kitchen appliances and his bedroom was off limits anyways so it didn't matter what he kept in there. Roy had a second location for his Red Arrow activities that he was more determined than ever to keep a secret now.

Half-hearted attempts at throwing them out aside Roy knew it was good for the team to get away from their strict supervision. He just wished they would find somewhere else; especially since he had become the go to guy to complain to.

Roy texted Batman one day after Robin had made a point to visit on his own, "You should talk to him."

He never received an answer but something must have reached him because Robin kept coming back to confide in him. Roy did his best, remembering that age and wanting to prove himself to his mentor. Of course he had been replaced in the end but whatever.

It was after Roy started buying extra groceries that he woke up to find Wally staring at him about two inches from his face. "Good morning."

He got in one good whack to the back of his head before Wally was on the other side of the room. "Whoa. Calm down would ya? I just needed some advice…"

"My door is locked for a reason! Why don't any of you ever get that," Roy yelled. "Go outside and tell the other two to get out of here."

Wally actually withered a little under Roy's glare but made no move to leave. Instead he went for a look of desperation, "I'm here alone. Please can we talk? I think I screwed up something really bad…" He trailed off and Roy couldn't just ignore him.

Sighing Roy threw back his blankets. "Fine. Give me a minute to get dressed and you better go make coffee." That bought Roy an entire half minute to throw on a shirt and pull some jeans on before Wally was knocking on his door again. "Is the coffee done?"

"No."

"Then wait," Roy grumbled before stumbling into the bathroom for his usual routine minus the shower. He was annoyed at having to wake up earlier than usual but he wasn't cruel, Wally had looked like he was going to crawl out of his skin. Roy had Flash's phone number somewhere but decided against texting for now. That didn't mean that there wasn't already a text when he checked, "U seen Wally? He wanted to talk but changed his mind."

Roy stuffed the phone into his pocket and headed into the living room, he'd answer when he had some actual insight. Which shouldn't take long if Wally nervously twitching on his couch was any indication. Roy sighed but still headed towards the coffee maker, if he wanted to check out that Coatery base he needed to get this over with. "Ok Wally, what is so important that you can't tell anyone else you know or wait an hour?" And it had better be important.

The reply was wavering and Roy almost couldn't hear it over the sound of coffee cups clinking together as he looked for the right one. "I think this is like, a face to face conversation ya know?"

Fine. Caffeine in hand Roy was standing in front of Wally soon enough. "There. Now what is it Wally?" It looked like he was actually going to do something besides chew on his bottom lip for a few moments until Wally threw his arms in frustration and sunk into the couch. Roy was not impressed as he took a patient drink. "You're going to have to speak up over the awkward fumbling unless you want to act out what happened."

That certainly got a reaction out of Wally, sitting up again and panicked protests, "No! No, that's ok I'll talk. Just no recreating anything alright?"

Interesting, Roy hadn't been serious but it got a response. "Sure. Now what happened?" Wally silently became several shades redder and Roy started to hope that Black Canary was right when she said Superboy and Meghan hadn't gotten beyond, "Mushy infatuation," and that Wally hadn't seen any of it.

Eventually Wally managed to say something, "Would you stop looming over me? It's kinda hard to spill my guts out to someone staring down at me."

"Have you tried talking to Black Canary? She has a couch and everything, you know because it's her job to be the confident?" Complaining aside Roy still sat down where he was in front of the couch. "Now you're the one doing to 'looming'. So you had better spit it out before I toss you out the door."

"Ikissedsomeone." Confession out in the open Wally hunched over with his head in his arms. Roy was far from impressed.

"That's it?" No wrecked cars to hide from Batman or ancient artifacts of doom in need of recovering? Roy was moving to stand up and show Wally the front door, "Artemis is crazy about you so just go talk to her."

"It wasn't her! Ew, she's my sister or something." Now Roy could understand some of the nervous twitching.

He sat back down and waited until Wally could look at him from between his arms. "Just talk to Superboy, tell him it was a mistake and he won't kill you for kissing his girlfriend. Get Aqualad to help you he's supposed to be the leader."

"It wasn't Meg." Roy waited all of five seconds for Wally to spit it out before his patience wore down too much. He wasn't going to force himself to imaging every possible scenario and run through the list of every possibility with Wally.

Leaving the mug on the floor Roy hoisted himself up and headed for the front door. Opening it he pointed outside, "Wally, believe it or not I have something to do besides babysit you all day. So tell me or get out."

Wally was staring at him over the couch in an instant, "Please! Just give me a minute ok, this is weirdest, most embarrassing moment of my life!"

Roy shut the door and headed into the kitchen. Anyone else, he swore, and they would have been kicked out the moment they wandered into his bedroom. But this was a kid in over his head that for some bizarre reason saw him as the only person he could turn to. Roy started pulling ingredients from a cupboard. "You have until the pancakes are done."

Blessed silence followed and Roy took the calm moment to pull out his phone and text the team's current babysitter and Flash, "Wally is here. Don't expect him today." Then everything was more or less automated because Roy may be a poor cook but pancakes aren't exactly rocket science.

It's when he has the syrup out and a couple of plates that Wally moves to the breakfast bar separating the kitchen and living room. When a stack of pancakes is placed in front of the kid it seems like the joy of food is going to snap Wally out of his funk until he takes a bite and looks at Roy in disbelief. "Dude, how can someone make terrible pancakes?"

Roy is too busy pulling a protein shake from the fridge to roll his eyes. "Just get back to the terrible awkward teenage romance."

"Ya know I think you're a teenager to." Roy doesn't elaborate and Wally only braves a few more bites before pushing his plate forward and slumping in his chair. "Promise ya won't tell? Or say anything?"

"Wally I have to say something since you came to me I'm guessing to talk about it. But no, I won't tell anyone." Roy finds the cabinet with a missing knob and leans against it facing Wally. "Well?"

Nervous twitching and then Wally finally spits it out. "Robin! Ok? We were beating up some thugs in a warehouse all alone `cause the others had somewhere else to be. Then we were done and he was saying something and-and I kissed him!"

Wally looked at Roy expectedly for a few tense moments before he couldn't hold in it anymore. Roy laughed, eventually having to lean over and clutch his sides in an attempt to catch his breath while Wally spluttered in shock. "That's-" deep breathes, "that's it? I thought you tried to pull a move on Captain Marvel or something the way you were acting. Robin?" Roy couldn't continue; he had to keep laughing. Maybe it was a bit cruel judging by how Wally was staring at him in complete horror.

"I kind of hate you. Yeah, I totally do." Roy finally got his breathing under control and shrugged.

"Sorry, I just," Roy needed the distraction of another cup of coffee to keep himself from laughing again, "Are you worried about Batman?" That would scare Roy even but Wally had Flash to smooth things over.

Roy heard a thunk loud enough to warrant him setting the coffee pot down and turning to see Wally with his head against the counter. "I'm dead! Deader than dead! I didn't even think about what Batman's going to do to me." Wally quickly descended into despaired moaning and Roy was about five seconds from joining him.

Patience. He could do this, carefully Roy moved until he was close enough to push Wally back into a sitting position. "Batman isn't going to do anything because he doesn't care. And no one is going to care that you kissed a boy. Yeah, things are going to be a little awkward but that's how it always is when you get shot down."

Wally seemed better, or at least he didn't immediately fall over when Roy took his hand off his shoulder. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Robin won't hate me?"

"No."

Wally eyed him skeptically, "You sure? I mean, what would you do is some guy kissed you?"

At this point Roy wasn't sure what he would do if anyone kissed him it had been so long. But he wasn't going to tell Wally that. "That's not important, what did Robin do?"

That got him a wide eyed stare and nothing else. A sudden realization hit Roy, "Is that why you were here so damn early? You just kissed him and ran?" If Wally said yes…Roy might have to throw him out a window.

Wally said yes and dashed back to the couch before Roy could get a hand on him. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Talk to him you idiot! How do you even know this is some terrible disaster?" Roy only made it one step towards Wally before the idiot red head was locking himself in the bathroom and Roy rushed to pound on the door. "You are not staying in my bathroom Wally. If I have to bust down my own door-"

Before Roy could come up with something creative there was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal the Boy Wonder himself looking a little dazed but far from the disgusted anger Wally must have been imagining. The only indication that he was seriously out of it was Robin not commenting on Roy trying to break into his own bathroom. As usual he headed for the carpet in front of the couch and stared at Roy curiously. "Have you seen Wally?"

"Yes," Roy was going to give Wally five seconds to speak up before he told Robin the other boy was having an emotional crisis in the bathroom.

He got to four when the weight against the door disappeared and Robin suddenly perked up. "Do you know why he didn't answer his phone then? I need to talk to him."

And there was the iron grip on the door handle again. Roy showed great restraint by not shoving the door open and giving the idiot a well deserved concussion. Instead Roy kept talking to Robin, "Let me guess, he kissed you then ran off before you two could arrange a proper date?"

Robin looked surprised, "Well yeah, I guessed he heard one of the thugs getting away or something but I haven't been able to find him."

Now Roy gave an unexpected shove that had the door open and Wally easily grabbed by the collar and thrown into the living room in front of a baffled Robin. "Here he is. Now I give you both my blessing and get out."

If Roy wasn't so frustrated it might have been endearing to see Robin enthusiastically grab Wally by the hand and remind him that Zombie Slayers 3 was still playing in theaters. What really made him happy was seeing the two slip out onto the balcony and disappear into the city.


	2. Chapter 2

Roy didn't end up with a new apartment. He didn't get new locks or set traps near the windows either. Instead Roy sat on his couch and enjoyed the silence. Sure he was black and blue all over from a meta-human prison escape but he was alone.

It was perfect. Maybe Roy would start pairing off all of his troubles if it worked so well. Just as Roy's thoughts were drifting an image of Cheshire and Lex cuddling brought an end to that fantasy. He nearly fell of the couch reaching for the remote so he could drown out the image of them moving towards second base.

Roy would stick to Robin and Kid Flash and resist the urge to gouge out his eyes; especially if some random puppets dancing on his TV screen did twice the job a rusty spoon could do. Roy still had the remote in hand but something stopped him from changing the channel. Mindless chatting and a constant wave of colors washed over him as he slumped against the couch. He could enjoy a mindless children's cartoon, hell last time he had lived with Oliver the man still got a kick out of Saturday mornings in front of the TV.

"Perry's Peppy Puppets?" An exited, breathless voice caught him of guard and Roy looked over in time to see Miss Martian turn visible next to him. "I love this show. Who's the purple elephant? Did Peppy sew him or was he found somewhere like Polly?" Forgetting that she was breaking and entering Megan leaned forward and began chattering away while he took a moment to stare at her in disbelief.

"Go away. Now." This was the happy one. Or at least the decently-adjusted one that could talk to anyone besides him. To emphasize his point Roy turned off the TV and turned to glare at her.

Megan took it as an invitation to begin speaking about something else. "Wally and Robin still hang out here right?"

"No."

"Oh," Megan deflated a bit and Roy knew he was going to have company for a while. "They didn't say anything?"

Aside from her and Superboy being a flimsy excuse to invade his apartment the boys didn't talk about Megan. Or anything with substance and it had been very painful to listen to. Roy told her as much and waited for his apartment to become empty again.

Fate had other ideas; starting with Megan covering her face and her arms and groaning out several syllables followed by high-pitched garbling. Roy took the opportunity to text Black Canary begging her for help. The response told him that she would have to come to his apartment to pick Megan up and Roy decided to cut his losses while he wasn't too deep in the hole. With his luck welcoming Black Canary would be seen as an open invitation to turn his apartment into a superhero hostel.

Determined to end things quickly Roy turned his full attention to his intruder and tried to exude some sort of uncaring wisdom. "Fine, tell me what happened and I'll point out the completely obvious so you can all pretend I'm some sort of miracle worker. Then go away." Megan had only heard the first three words and tuned out the rest with her optimism.

She did sit up and moved her hands to fiddle with the hem of her shirt but still didn't look directly at Roy. "Have you ever dated anyone?"

Why did these kids assume he was some sort of statue? It was still better than Oliver snooping everywhere but not by much. "It's complicated and has nothing to do with any of your problems."

Megan wasn't pleased with that answer and her exasperation managed to overcome her embarrassment, "But Uncle John says having experience is the most important part of teaching."

"I have not and never will teach any of you anything." Showing Artemis that backhand throw last week didn't count because he was trying to throw her out of his kitchen before she ate everything and Roy only counted himself as a witness to the Wally/Robin thing. "So you can go to your uncle or someone else."

"No! Hello, that is like, way too embarrassing." Roy could tell; it was very odd to see someone with a green complexion blushing.

And kind of pathetic to. Or at least that was what he would blame for what he was about to say, "Right. But telling me is fine. Whatever, so it has something to do with dating and the Kid Flash/Robin thing."

Megan nodded. Then stared at him expectedly as if Roy was about to offer some sort of solution.

"I need more information Megan."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you've dated?" Megan barely dodged the fluffy pillow thing that had migrated to his living room somehow. "Fine! You're an adult anyways and you used to be a teenager so…" Roy watched her clutching the pillow and tried to focus more on the throbbing pain in his ribs then his growing impatience. Eventually though the need to pee and possibly fix lunch won out and he twitched to get up. Immediately he had Megan throwing herself around him, "Wait! It's really important!"

"Then spit it out! And get off me."

"Oh, your bruises. Right," Megan sat back and adopted a very fine posture, Roy continued slouching. "So it started three days ago when we were in the lounge," Roy would have asked who exactly 'we' was but he didn't want to prolong the experience or give Megan a reason to stop her fluttery speech. "And when Robin and Wally got out of the gym they were both wet and went right to the couch and started cuddling. I was busy with the book Uncle gave me but I noticed when Artemis started giggling," Of course. Artemis was the one to blame. Roy would have his revenge later but for now Megan seemed to be getting to the point based on how loud and rushed she was. "Then she said, that-that- theywereactinglikebunnies."

Ew. That was quite possibly the worst visual ever of the two being cute and cuddly. But nothing that would freak out a cute obsessed girl. Who was back to staring at him with some sort of expectation that he could not figure out. "I'm still lost Megan."

"Bunnies! Don't you know what that means?"

Roy did the impossible and spent moment thinking about bunnies. Cute, fluffy, well loved by small children around Easter despite having nothing to do with Jesus and… he stopped. No. No, no and no again. Roy was not going to let his mind go there and he was going to offer Megan the sanest advice he could and later tell Artemis to keep her thoughts to herself. And then take comfort in the fact that he doubted they even were doing anything that required closed doors. "No. Don't even think about it. It's none of your business anyways."

"But-" Megan had gone from blushing and fumbling to pale and horrified, "They're still not adults. And what about crime fighting? Or diapers?" Wait, diapers? "And cradles, and watching them, and school, and-"

"Stop! What are you talking about?" Why did the sanest looking ones always turn out to be the craziest? And then stare at him as if he was the one with a few screws loose?

"Bunnies," if Megan expected that to create some sort of big bang in Roy's understanding of this she was wrong. "One of the fastest breeding creatures? Someone needs to talk to them about how hard it is taking care of so many babies and,"

It finally clicked for Roy. Right, Martians with their looser concept of gender probably weren't unfamiliar with same-sex couples having children. Or Megan was failing human biology to a new degree. He held up a hand to stop her, "It's not possible. Humans of the same gender can't have children. And it's impossible to breed like rabbits anyways because pregnancy is nine months and typically only for one child at a time."

"Really?" Roy could see a very heavy weight being lifted from her.

"Yes."

Megan still looked a bit skeptical, "All humans?"

Roy ended up dragging himself to his computer with Megan bouncing behind him. Several Google searches later and he had several chapters printed out explaining to the Martian how exactly human reproduction worked. He handed them over to Megan and pointed towards the door, "There. Read, commit to memory and never mention anything about Kid Flash and Robin again.

She was flying happily out the window in moments. Roy turned to the TV that was now broadcasting regular news. Sinking on the couch he opened the Netflix window, what had Megan called that show again? Cause he was guessing it was about to become his new favorite show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Megan was a bit of a challenge but eventually I went for the tried and true failure in human biology. And more of Roy suffering, I'm on a roll with that. Next chapter: Superboy, because I'm putting Artemis off for as long as possible. And as for timeline I wrote this when I was about six episodes behind so this is very, very, vaguely around Coldhearted. Or ya know, just floating somewhere along the timeline.

**Author's Note:**

> Having troubles with Percy Colors so I decided to work with a prompt The Twin found because she really loves Young Justice. Kou_Tora, I didn't follow your wonderful idea completely but I hope I did well.


End file.
